Last Sunday, Kermit left the swamp with a banjo and a dream, and somewhere between a used car lot and a Hollywood office, the car filled up. A bear who wanted to be funny. A pig who wanted to be seen. A whatever-Gonzo-is who wanted to go to Bombay. Andie reminded us that the dream […]
Six stories. Five centuries. Read More »
Long before anyone built a projector, there was a fire, and a circle of faces around it, and someone who could not stop talking. That is the oldest technology we own. Somewhere far back in our story, a human being discovered that if you tell a tale well enough, the people listening will recognize themselves
On Sunday morning, two pots will be on the fire before the first hymn. By the time we reach the sermon, the sanctuary will smell like onions and garlic and whatever you carried in from your kitchen, and I cannot think of a better way to end the month we have walked through together. We
On Tuesday evening, the sun crosses the equator, and for one day, everywhere on earth, light and dark stand in equal measure. In Miami it will still be ninety degrees. Nobody will need a sweater. And the light will change anyway. The sun will set a little farther south down the street. The farmers in
Before the First Seed Read More »
Twenty-five years ago this morning, the sky over the whole East Coast was a clear, impossible blue. Most of us can still say exactly where we were standing when the second plane hit and the day stopped being an accident. Two thousand nine hundred seventy-seven people did not come home that night. Thousands more have
The World of September 12th Read More »
A seed does its first work in the dark. Before anything green shows above the soil, the husk splits open and something tender starts reaching for light. Nobody sees that part. It happens underground, out of sight, long before there is anything to admire. This September, while most of the country brings in its harvest,
Come Plant Something Read More »
On Tuesday, in Nashville, Dolly Parton finished her climb. She was eighty years old, and the world has felt smaller every hour since. I want to tell you why her passing belongs in this letter, on the last week of our #BeingUU summer. For nine Sundays we have walked the values of our faith, one
What Would Dolly Do Read More »
Last Sunday we stood inside our Seventh Principle: respect for the interdependent web of all existence of which we are a part. Every strand holds every other strand. But a web can be torn. And the web does not tear evenly. The gap between who we are as a nation and who we pretend to
The Web Does Not Tear Evenly Read More »
Everywhere science looks, it finds the same patient miracle: systems seeking balance in order to survive a hostile, chaotic universe. A forest is a negotiation billions of years old. A reef is a treaty written in coral. A body, your body, is trillions of cells holding a truce so faithful you get to forget it
The Strand That Woke Up Read More »
This Sunday, our #BeingUU summer reaches its widest circle. The Sixth Principle: the goal of world community with peace, liberty, and justice for all. You have known the last six words since childhood. You said them with your hand over your heart, facing a flag, before you could spell half of them. Our faith takes
The Passport We Light Every Sunday Read More »